Principal Mara Galeazzi and First Artist Jonathan Watkins are to leave The Royal Ballet, retiring and pursuing a career as a choreographer respectively.

Mara will retire from The Royal Ballet in July 2013, at the end of the current season. Mara, who had her first child last April, will move to Oman to be with her husband. She will focus on new projects, teaching dance and her work for her charity foundation Dancing for The Children, which raises funds for sick children in Africa. Mara’s farewell performance at the Royal Opera House will be as Mary Vetsera in Mayerling on 13 June. Her final performance with The Royal Ballet will be in Monaco where she will perform the title role in Manon on 29 June.

Jonathan will leave the Company on Saturday 23 February to embark on a freelance career as a choreographer/director. Jonathan joined The Royal Ballet in 2003. His interest in choreography began as a student at The Royal Ballet School and continued as a member of the Company. He has choreographed for First Drafts and Draft Works and created As One for the Main Stage of the Royal Opera House. Jonathan also choreographed one of the ballets that made up Metamorphosis: Titian 2012(Diana and Actaeon) with William Tuckett and Liam Scarlett. His many outside commissions to date include two short films for Channel 4 and the role of movement director for Alan Bennett's latest play People at the National Theatre. Jonathan has numerous projects lined up including choreographing new works in Russia and America, a full-length adaptation in the UK and a collection of theatre and film projects.

Works by both The Royal Opera and The Royal Ballet have been nominated at this year’s South Bank Sky Arts Awards. The awards, now in their third year, celebrate the very best of British culture and achievement across the arts.

David McVicar’s epic production of Berlioz’s Les Troyens has been nominated in the Opera category. Created on a truly Olympic scale, the production transformed the Main Stage into both war-torn Troy and beautiful Carthage. The new production featured an acclaimed performance by Bryan Hymel. Stuart MacRae and Louise Welsh’s Ghost Patrol, performed by Scottish Opera in the Linbury Studio last September, has also been nominated as has Netia Jones's Where The Wild Things Are, staged at the Barbican.

Following the Olympic Games and the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad, the awards panel said that 2012 was particularly strong across all categories. Melvyn Bragg, who will act as Master of Ceremonies and editor, said:

"2012 was a remarkably fine year for British achievement not least in British art, by British artists. Arriving at this shortlist was a tough job for our judges. We are proud of this world class list of nominees which recognize and honour the best talent at work in the UK today."

The judges of this year’s South Bank Sky Arts Awards include Peter Aspden, Arts Correspondent of the Financial Times; Richard Brooks, Arts Editor of the Sunday Times; and Sarah Donaldson, Arts Editor of the Observer. The winners will be announced in an awards ceremony at the Dorchester Hotel. The ceremony will be broadcast on Sky Arts 1 HD at 9.30pm on 14 March.